Wedding Music!

We're planning on hiring a DJ for the wedding that can handle dinner music as well as party music afterwards.  We're still on the hunt for this - but hoping we can find someone for under $1,000.  Originally we were budgeting about $600 but it looks like we'll have to bring someone into my hometown and will likely have to pay one nights accommodation for them.

We still need to figure out if we'll have any music during the ceremony and then our first dance song.  What did you guys do for your music during the ceremony?

There are two options for ceremonhy location at our venue.  One is at the old barn where there is  little or no access to electricity (unless we used extension cords) - and the other option is on the North facing side of the venue where they have a nice stone feature wall.  My preference is the barn - but this may impact our music options.

The other thing is our first song....here's a song that Jordan found that he really loved!  I think it's pretty great too - but I thought I would put it out there and ask you for suggestions too.

It's by Ray Robinson and is called "Be The One": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4UYpbmBQ0c

I can't find lyrics written out to this exact version of the song and it looks like from googling the lyrics there is more than one....I like the one specifically in this You Tube video - but so far haven't been able to hear each and every word - so I'm open to hearing your thoughts.

Wedding Bar Help!

One of the decisions that Jordan and I made early on was how we wanted to handle the liquor at the wedding.  We are going to have a bottle of red and white (Copper Moon) on each dinner table and a single bottle of champagne (Segura Viudas Brut - maybe)  for toasts. So there will be lots of free drinks for supper.

We talked about having an open bar, but after this conversation with my cousin on Facebook, we decided to go with a twoonie bar.

Having every drink available for $2 will pay for the cost of the liquor.  We will still need to subsidize juice, pop and ice for the bar - but we're guessing (based on an invite list of 150 with about 120 of those that actually drink) that it will cost about $250.

I'm wondering though - if anyone reading this has either hosted a wedding or a party as big as this has some advise on running the bar.  I'm not sure what and how many types of mix we need and what core alcohols we need (keeping in mind any booze this is un-opened, we can return).

The other debate is whether we should ask the bartender to deal with all the money (and then give us the cash  less their tips at the end of the night) or ask someone else to handle selling drink tickets and then the bartender only has to deal with their tips.  My Aunt has volunteered to sell drink tickets but I think we'd need at least two people doing this.  I like the drink ticket idea because then, if we wanted, we could give our attendents a few free drinks on us relatively easily.

So - what are your thoughts?

Wedding Planning Update

Now that Christmas is over, my train of thought it changing to full-swing wedding planning. We got a few key items sorted out after we got engaged but then all things wedding came to a halt mid-November when we started gearing up for Christmas.

According to this Easy Wedding Planning Plus Guide that my Maid of Honour bought me there's certain things you need to have done in order before the wedding - as it turns out we're right on track for the 'get this stuff done before 9 months before the wedding'. We've even got some things done ahead of the books schedule.

This stuff is all done:

• We've selected a wedding date: August 6, 2011
• We decided we wanted to get married in my home town
• We've talked about who will pay for what (Jordan and I will pay for everything equally)
• We made a budget, and talked about it a lot
• We've made our guests list and started collecting addresses (almost done)
• We have reserved our ceremony/reception sites
• We've selected and reserved our Justice of the Peace
• We know our colours (lilac and charcoal)
• We've selected and booked our photographer
• we did an engagement photo session and got all of our pictures over Christmas - we chose our favorite ten which will get the final high resolution copies of in the next couple of weeks and we'll get all 91 of them after the new year.
• Jordan ordered and received his passport that we'll need for our Honey Moon (I already had mine)
• We've chosen our attendents
• We've selected and book our caterer
• We've started planning our Honey Moon (VEGAS!)
• Find someone to do our cake/cupcakes :D (my cousins girlfriend)

We still need to:

• Get our attire organized
• Organize DJ and other wedding music

I'm hoping we'll sort out attire and music in January, after which, we'll need to focus on:

• Reserve accommodation for wedding night
• Sort out flowers/decorations for the venue
• Organize and mail wedding invites (we're thinking around May with an RSVP date of June 15th)
• Figure out if we need to rehearse anything
• Sort out accommodation for out of town guests
• Register for gifts

After all that's sorted we can thinking about the things we need to do 6-8 weeks before like getting our marriage license.  I won't list the other stuff out yet because we have a whole load of other things to think about first.

Spending Update

I can't get into the nitty gritty details of Christmas spending, because far too many people that I bought for read (or have the potential to read) this blog.

But, I will share this:

We have made a few payments already including mom & dad paying me for the gifts I bought on their behalf's as well as just a regular payment.  Unfortunately this is just what's currently owing,  our total bill from November was due on December 26, 2010 and was for $5712.44 - as Macl1in hasn't reimbursed our $2,000 deposit for the Retire Your Ride Program, we weren't able to  make the deadline. We needed to make another $915 payment in order to avoid interest penalties.

What is really tragic is now we'll pay interest on all of our purchases until we have a zero balance at the time the company runs our bill :(

So, to compound all this - we still need to buy groceries and gas for the rest of January.

We have eliminated our house, wedding and allowances for January - and we will only have $310 from now until January 5th.  It's going to be tight.

Don'tcha just love Christmas?

House Fund Update

I'm pleased to share, that as of this Friday Jordan and I made it to.....(get ready for it)....

$10,000 

.....in our house-fund.  We're half-way to a respectable down payment!

Roommates - Le Sigh

It's been a while since I've had a roommate rant post, so after yesterdays events - I thought it was time.

We have had quite a few trials with one of our roommates lately it seems, at least twice a month, mid-week - we get phone calls from neighbors complaining about loud music during the day.  Further to that, we often get woken up in the middle of the night with music or friends coming home from the bars (mid-week).  Yesterday was the breaking point when I got called at work with a complaint!

We've had a few conversations with this roommate already about his general lack of respect for our space, our things and our home - and he's brought us far to close to potential eviction with all his nonsense.  So, we've asked him to find another place to live.  He has until January 30 to have all of his things removed.

Not that he has that many things - this is the roommate that was renting a fully furnished bedroom.

I'm concerned because we know that there is a whole in the closet wall and he's moved huge TV's up and down the stairs so many times there's quite a few hits and dings.  I would like to give him back his damage deposit - but it's all going to have to be puttied and cleaned otherwise, it'll be a no-go.

Thankfully, he pays he rent in advance so he's already paid January's rent.  He'll owe us fro December's and January's utilities - but there's never been any problems with paying, so I hope there's no problems in that area now.

So, Jordan and I have a choice to make.

1. Pay the increased rent - $850 and 2/3's utilities (instead of $350 and 1/2 utilities)
2. Find another (short-term) roommate

The kicker is that we want to save as much as possible between now and the wedding, when we want to be out on our own.  An extra six months of roommate hell = $3,000....which is why we've kept this guy around so long.  But our sanity and the potential for eviction just isn't worth it (neither are the fights between Jordan and I).  Not that they are plentiful, but the situation add's irritation to a lot of otherwise normal conversations and we wind up getting itchy with each other.

I'm partial to continuing to save like mad for the wedding, and dropping the house savings down a bit and just enjoy less roommates. We might not be in a house as fast as we'd like, but really it's not the end of the world of we rent for a while longer.

Short Update

Like most years, I wish that Jordan and I had put away more than we did for Christmas. I won't have final numbers until the middle of next week or so - but it's looking a little rough that's for sure.  Are you in the same boat that we are, or are you pretty good at forecasting how much you'll spend at Christmas?

I'm not just talking gifts - but we donate more, drive more, drink more and socialize wayyy more this time of year then any other time of the year.  I'm thinking next year we'll aim to save $1,500 or so to pad the December budget instead of the about $600 we had (the goal was $1,000 but with a few emergencies along the way that didn't exactly work out).

Other than the Christmas budget, things are really coming along smoothly.

This is my last couple of days at work before I have a week and a bit off - so really looking forward to having a break.  Jordan and I have the same week off in between Christmas and New Years which is a nice change.

We have a potluck at work today which I'm looking forward too - i brought hummus :D yum!

Hope you all have a fabulous Monday!